Posted: Nov 02, 2015 1:49 PM PST
Updated: Nov 02, 2015 7:04 PM PST
(FOX25 / MyFoxBoston) Bob Ward

LAWRENCE, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Earlier this year, a 41-year-old grandmother was shot and killed in her Lawrence apartment while she slept.

The fatal bullet was fired from the upstairs apartment, went down through the ceiling, and struck Mirta Rivera in her bed.

Two of the three men in the upstairs apartment were undocumented immigrants who had been previously deported.

Jose Lara Mejia is the man charged with killing Rivera. He was caught crossing the border in August 2013, and was ordered deported, but defied the order.

“Clearly something is wrong in our immigration enforcement system to allow this to happen,” said Jessica Vaughn, with the Center for Immigration Studies.

She says the revolving door of deportees charged with crimes is happening at an alarming rate.

“Sixty percent of the people who committed aggravated felonies that ice has deported, were deported once before,” Vaughn said.

According to an analysis of ICE records by the Center for Immigration Studies, 2,000 people were deported from 2011-2013 in Boston. About 20 percent of those were deported before and came back. Of those 400 people, 22 percent were violent criminals. Their crimes included murder, sex assault, rape, kidnapping, and drug crimes.

Vaughn believes as eye opening as those numbers are, they could be much higher.

“Cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and ICE have been suppressed due to political policies that have been put into place at the state level, and certain cities and towns that have adopted ordinances and other rules that prohibit cooperation with ice,” Vaughn said.

There are "sanctuary cities," like Cambridge and Somerville, that have adopted policies not to enforce federal immigration laws.

But supporters say these cities protect immigrants who have not broken any laws, other than being here illegally.

“Criminality has nothing to do with immigration status,” said Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA).

Millona says the number of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in Massachusetts has decreased.

“The border has been strengthened and secure and we have seen less entries,” Millona said.

MIRA says data from the American Immigration Council shows that between 1990 and 2013, the number of unauthorized immigrants more than tripled from 3.5 to 11.2 million. Still, the violent crime rate declined 48 percent.

“Is there room for improvement? Always it is,” Millona said. “Who is here and how can we get to register everyone and see who has criminal records? Who is here to do us harm, and who is here to reunite with their families?”

But critics say the numbers reveal a simple truth. The death of Marta Rivera, as well as the crimes committed by other undocumented immigrants around the country should never have happened.

“People shouldn't be coming back here after they've been deported before,” said Vaughn.

http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/304...mented-workers